AP1100 mount with Telescope set to SkyX Ascom. Mount does not recognize meridian flip command.
Used both delay (4 minutes) and no delay.
JK, There is no such thing as a meridian flip command in ASCOM. The flip occurs if the mount receives a slew command though ASCOM when it is on the wrong side of the meridian. If this happens very close to the meridian itself, a number of folks have seen some anomalies due to where the mount thinks it is versus external applications.
ASCOM Telescope.SideOfPier has a getter and a setter. If the mount supports setting SideOfPier, the mount can be flipped. There’s even an app described in the C:\Program Files (x86)\ASCOM\Platform 6 Developer Components\Developer Documentation directory that can prove whether or not your own mount supports it.
While there is no flip() command, setting SideOfPier is equivalent.
Thanks for the clarification - in a separate post, I thought either Ken or Jared confirmed that they use the slew command, rather than side of pier.
According to this, they use sideofpier if it’s available: Enabling Early Meridian Flip on AP mounts - #5 by pfile - Sequence Generator - Main Sequence Software
As people say ASCOM has a set SideOfPier property, but it isn’t always possible to implement this. There’s a CanSetSideOfPier property that indicates if this is possible. If it isn’t then SGP assumes that a normal slew will cause a pier flip once the mount has tracked past the meridian and then does a normal slew to the object position. The delay after crossing the meridian is to ensure that the mount really has tracked past the meridian.
If SetSideOfPier is true then a set of SideOfPier can be expected to cause a slew to the current position but with the mount in the other pointing state. The current position will be read from the mount. At least that’s how I implement it.
I was able to solve my problem by selecting AP Mount ASCOM in lieu of SkyX ASCOM for telescope. SkyX ASCOM doesn’t work or it is unreliable for “flips”.